Dark warnings about future of Internet access

An international conference to revise a global ‘digital’ treaty is sparking fears that precedents will be set that could jeopardize freedom on the Web

By Eric Pfanner / NY Times News Service, PARIS

Illustration: Kevin Sheu

Every time an Internet user watches Gangnam Style on YouTube, packets of digital data course through the global telecommunications system, converging on an iPhone, tablet or laptop.

Having missed out on most of the lucrative revenue that the explosion of digital content has generated for Internet companies, telecommunications providers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere now want to charge them for carrying this traffic.

No way, the content providers say.

This commercial and ideological clash is set for a showdown next week, when representatives of more than 190 governments, along with telecommunications companies and Internet groups, gather in Dubai for a once-in-a-generation meeting.

The ostensible purpose of the World Conference on International Telecommunications is to update a global treaty on technical standards needed to, say, connect a telephone call from Tokyo to Timbuktu. The previous conference took place in 1988, when the Internet was in its infancy and telecommunications remained a highly regulated, mostly analog business.

Critics of the International Telecommunication Union, the UN agency that is organizing the meeting, see a darker agenda. The blogosphere has been raging over supposed plans led by Russia to snatch away control of the Internet and hand it to the UN agency.

That seems unlikely. Any such move would require an international consensus and opposition is widespread. Terry Kramer, the US’ ambassador to the conference, has vowed to veto any change in how the Internet is overseen.

Union secretary-general Hamadoun Toure of the telecommunications, has repeatedly said that it has no desire to take over the Internet or to stifle its growth. On the contrary, one of the main objectives of the conference is to spread Internet access to more of the 4.5 billion people around the world who still do not use it, he said.

However, groups as diverse as Google, the Internet Society, the International Trade Union Confederation and Greenpeace warn that the discussions could set a bad precedent, encouraging governments to step up censorship or take other actions that would threaten the integrity of the Internet.

“This is a very important moment in the history of the Internet, because this conference may introduce practices that are inimical to its continued growth and openness,” said Vinton Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google, during a conference call.

Google set up a Web site last week titled “Take Action,” encouraging visitors to sign a petition for a “free and open Internet.”

The campaign is modeled on the successful drive last winter to defeat legislative proposals to crack down on Internet piracy in the US.

Analysts say the outcry over censorship and Internet governance is a red herring — the real business of the conference is business.

“The far bigger issue — largely obscured by this discussion — are proposals that are more likely to succeed that envision changing the way we pay for Internet services,” Michael Geist, an Internet law professor at the University of Ottawa, said by e-mail.

In one submission to the conference, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association, a lobbying group based in Brussels that represents companies like France Telecom, Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia, proposed that network operators be permitted to assess charges for content providers like Internet video companies that use a lot of bandwidth.